20' Three Mile - Lessons Learned
In my early 20s, I was mostly around 190 pounds. In 2006-2008, years of many, many heavy dinners in Las Vegas and other places, I went up to 210. From late 2009 until 2021, I was in the range of 190-218 pounds, sometimes with more muscle and sometimes with less. I was quite surprised in early 2022 to find myself at the very top of this range.
In early Feb, I went running with my friend Nikolai on the beach and we somewhat randomly decided that we would try to run a 20’ 3-mile before May 1. This was an ambitious and unlikely goal.
There was never any money wagered on this 20’ time. However, for both of us, it became a subject of increasing fixation. We both went about the process quite analytically and systematically. You will want to hear about his approach (which, as a preview, involved an extreme amount of Zone 2 training) but here was mine…
Running while heavy is something that is halfway feasible for one mile, but not at all feasible for three. The first step therefore was to cut 10 to 12 pounds.
I would love to learn from others how to do a cut like this properly. Below is the graph of the cut I did from March 21 to April 21 (-41300 calories). I had to do it rapidly because the run date was set for May 1.
Here are the lessons I’ve learned from trial and error over the years:
I like food and drink too much to cut weight without tracking. I have to track calories in and out, or it will never happen.
The cut has to be relatively rapid or it won’t happen (I’m not going to track over more than a month or two).
The cut is a terrible, costly process, which should make you never want to have periods of excess again (but doesn’t). During a cut, the brain only works for short, random moments, and intense physical training is impossible. After a deficit of 15k calories, random irritability is an issue.
The cut is somewhat easy until a deficit of 10k calories is reached. Up until this point, you can think clearly and physical fitness is unaffected. Beyond, say, a 20k calorie deficit, the lack of energy during workouts is extreme.
Maximizing the nutrient-to-calorie ratio is paramount to making the cut tolerable. Alcohol should obviously be avoided altogether (though in the period below I had 14 glasses of wine and 2 beers).
Foods that are great for appetite suppression: breakfast - poached eggs on toast, egg white scramble, turkey bacon, lunch and dinner - sweet potatoes, spinach, steak or fish, broccoli and carrots. snacks - prosciutto, bacon, full fat yogurt.
The worst aspect of the cut has to be that your brain isn’t functioning well, and it’s hard to imagine that this is avoidable. I’d be eager to hear any tips to avoid this effect.
I didn’t take any supplements during this time. I was taking HGH up until around March 15. I’ve hardly ever taken it lifetime, but I took it as part of a post surgery recovery program (elbow surgery on Feb 4). I’m eager to hear Peter Attia’s upcoming podcast regarding HGH for injury recovery (he noted that he took it following his recent shoulder surgery).
I don’t like to take HGH because 1) it’s expensive as fck, 2) I don’t like the feel of injecting something every day, and 3) there is some unknown cancer risk. This might be a conservative approach — it’s possible that HGH is just overall very good for both health and longevity. I will say this about HGH… if exercising during an intense calorie cut feels like you’re missing one gear (for example, a long run for me normally might be 60-70 minutes; during a cut I can run for 40min max), then exercise while taking HGH feels like you have an extra gear. I don’t think it’s psychological and I don’t know the mechanism. I’ve read that there are direct improvements in mitochondrial function, such that the translation to exercise performance is exact (you produce ATP more efficiently).
My guess is that HGH is worth around 30 seconds on a three mile time. My best three mile time in all of Feb and March was 21min 31sec on March 10. That was with the benefit of HGH. Shortly after that, I was off of HGH and on the calorie cut, and I could not find that time again. I think the cost of being on an extended calorie cut was at least a minute on my three mile time. When I finished the cut on April 21 and started eating again on April 22, I saw rapid improvements. On April 23, I was still feeling the effects of the cut, and I had to abort a three mile attempt at the two mile mark (14min20sec two mile). I ate well on April 24 ,and on April 25 I ran a 20:54 three mile on the treadmill. At that point, I thought I would likely find the 20’ time, though on April 28 I tried to do a 6’40” pace on the treadmill and aborted after 10min. On April 30, I ran 20min25sec in the rain at the track, and on May 1 I ran 19min45sec at the track.
Two more random topics: music and training style…
Training style. I think there are three basic approaches: Zone 2, interval, and train your event (in this case, run three miles fast). Zone 2 is good for aiding the cut while in that phase. Peter Attia and Inigo San-Millan have done two deep dives into Zone 2 training (the latest is below). I don’t have a full understanding of all that is discussed, but a decent summary is that very intense exercise has a high cost in terms of physiological stress, and therefore most of your training should be at Zone 2 (as it has the best tradeoff ratio between physiological costs and benefits).
Interval seems good but requires extremely discipline to implement well. I’ve always favored training by just doing the thing (train your event). It has the benefit of teaching you the pacing and pain profile of your preferred event.
Music. When I had a month to train for a mile a few years back, I found that the optimal soundtrack was Tool Parabol, followed by Parabola. It’s a killer track and it has the effect of pacing you for negative splits (bc Parabol is slow and then leads into the explosive Parabola). My soundtrack for the three mile was: 0-9:31 - Rufus du Sol “Underwater” (Willaris. K Remix), 9:31-15:15 Rage Against the Machine “Freedom” (demo edition from 20th anniversary album, 15:15-18.45 Deftness “My Own Summer”, 18.45-finish Tool “Parabola”.